Renee Salt, a 95-year-old who survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, told Jewish News on Friday that she was “outraged” to discover scammers had used AI to publish books about her life.
The books were published in February under a number of fake author names, some tinged with antisemitic meaning. Journalist Kate Thompson complained to the MailOnline that one fake author chose the name “Jude” (German for Jew).
Salt published her life story A Mother’s Promise and found scammers had stolen her work using AI within days of it being released.
In a statement to Jewish News, Salt said, “They’ve stolen my life story. That is outrageous. I’m pleased and relieved that the counterfeit copies have now been taken down. I don’t understand how they can get away with this. It’s disgusting that this should happen.”
One fake version, titled Renee Salt memoir: A Mother’s Promise, appeared on Amazon, published under the name “Jude Williams”, a pseudonym her co-author, journalist Kate Thompson, told MailOnline had “a blatant anti-Semitic slant”.
Antisemitism in the AI Holocaust literature scam
“’Jude’ is German for Jew. Under the Nazi regime, Jewish people were forced to wear identifiers such as Star of David armbands or badges with the word ‘Jude’ on it,” Thompson said.
While Thompson, who co-authored a legitimate book on Salt’s life, managed to have the AI book removed from Amazon, she later found another published under the name “Penny Pincher.”
Goodreads reportedly failed to remove the books and has since claimed they are looking into the complaint, arguing that the stolen story was not copyright infringement as they had changed much of the text and its order.
“They’ve stolen my life story. That is outrageous. I’m pleased and relieved that the counterfeit copies have now been taken down. I don’t understand how they can get away with this. It’s disgusting that this should happen,” Salt shared.
Salt's parents, younger sister and 200 extended family members were killed by the Nazis, according to the MailOnline.
“It’s creative leeching,” Thompson said. “To take a Holocaust survivor’s testimony for your own profit is beyond reprehensible. It’s about as low as humanity can go.”